Tuesday, March 27, 2012

Time cannot move fast enough for us! We have about 73 more days until the wedding (which our mothers are happy about because of all the planning). We are excited to be graduating in about 4 weeks, and then Marc's brother will be coming home the next week! I (melody) will be traveling to Portland after I graduate to attend the High School Graduation of my oldest nephew, Malachi, and to see everyone for a bit before I get married and move away! Perhaps then I can go through all my junk at Sandy and Jose's house to see what I need to keep and what I need to trash!

Moving to Pennsylvania is becoming more and more real to us, which is a scary, but very exciting thing! We are trying to plan how we are going to get ourselves and our stuff out there by mid-July so Marc can be all settled in before starting school.

All in all, I would say we are busy and in love as ever! We are enjoying this time, but look forward to the married life, and being able to celebrate with all of you before we make our big move!

Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Well ever since our big day last week, we have just been coming up with ideas and trying to decide what is happening!

We have decided on a definite date, which will be.....

JUNE 9, 2012

We will be married in the Las Vegas, Nevada Temple

Many of you will notice that it is the same layout as the Portland Temple. They were both dedicated in 1989 :-)

We will also be having a ring ceremony the same day for family members and close friends that cannot be in the temple with us. The reception will immediately follow. After lots of anticipation and drama, we FINALLY found a venue!click here to check it out!

Also, we have decided on our colors! YAY! Ok, so to show this part to you, I had to steal some pictures from weddinggawkger.com....so bear with me...

The colors will be gray, purple, and perhaps one other accent color. As shown...

I would definitely rather have a darker plum purple. And I LOVE the idea of light gray suits with the purple. As for a third color, or an accent, we aren't quite sure yet! I don't love all the green in the bouquets, so green probably won't be the last color.

Lots to do! But this is definitely the fun part. Hopefully as we get closer I won't become bridezilla as my sister so lovingly said....

Tuesday, January 10, 2012

Well everyone, we know you've all been on the edge of your seat waiting for the moment to come when we would announce that we are going to tie the knot. Well, the moment you've all been waiting for is here!!

I know people have been waiting to hear the whole story about how Marc proposed, because let me tell ya, it is a GREAT story! So here we go.

My suspicions began on Decemeber 25. I was holding my sister Cari's phone, when a text came from Marc saying, "Call me when you are not with Melody." WhAT?! Ok, something is up!

On Wednesday, December 28, I was so excited to leave Springville on a shuttle to meet Marc and his mom in St. George and go back to Vegas with them. I was scheduled to stay there until the 3rd of January, when we would return to Provo for our LAST semester at BYU. As I rode in the shuttle, I thought about the last few weeks with Marc and how much fun we had been having. Going ring shopping was one of our favorite things to do together...well mine anyway. In my heart, I had a faint hope that Marc would be proposing soon, but I knew better than to think that he had already got a ring, unless he was super sneaky.

When we got to his house I went upstairs and put my things in the room I was staying in, and a panicked Marc came into the room asking if I had looked in his room. I assured him that I had not, and he said that it was a good thing, since he had something in there for me, and it was kind of a big deal. Well of course this made me inconceivably curious! Every time I was in his room after that, I had to look around a little, just to see if I spotted a little box. Nevertheless...there was no sign.

A few days later, I was helping set up wireless internet, and Marc told me that I wasn't allowed to use their computer because there was something on it he had been working on for me. He told me it was a present that I would get in the future sometime, and I of course knew it was something for proposing to me...and I wished that it would be sooner than later!

We had such a good time together, and one night I confessed to Marc that all of his shenanigans were starting to get to me, and that the faint hope in my heart that he would be proposing soon had grown! Marc let me down very gently. He said that I told him a while back that I really wanted a short engagement, which is true, and that he would have tried to get a ring by now if he thought I wanted to be engaged this early.

We went to the strip for New Year's Eve...it was CRAZY! There would not have even been a chance for Marc to propose--so I guess I wasn't too surprised when he didn't.

I was so sad! I'm finally to a point where I feel comfortable committing to someone for eternity, and I was the one who was stalling the whole thing! Oh well....I told Marc maybe it was better if we didn't talk about marriage all the time, because it was starting to get to me!

Sunday rolled around, and I noticed that Marc got a text message from Cassandra, my other sister...and my suspicion grew again. Marc was acting TOTALLY normal, and told me it was for the gift he was giving me later on. Nothing fishy.

The next day, Monday January 2, 2012 was our last day in Vegas. By this time, the thought of Marc proposing was out of my mind, and I had come to terms with it. Marc owed me a date because I took him out to dinner one night in Provo, so he told me we needed to leave at 5:00. He also told me that he had made reservations...What!? That is so un-guy-ish of him!

When we were on our way to the restaurant, (he still hadn't told me where we were going) I was holding his hand in the car, and it was cold...usually Marc's hands are not cold unless he is jogging or nervous. Well I knew that we hadn't done any physical fitness lately, so I playfully asked if he was nervous. He played it off well, saying that he had his window open, so his hand was cold. Then he promptly reminded me that he didn't want to get my hopes up again, and talked about how he wished he knew that I was ready to be engaged...Ouch.

I was kind of sad, because I really had come to terms with the whole idea of NOT being engaged yet, and that kind of poured some salt in my fresh wound. I decided that we were there to have a fun last night in Vegas, so I let it roll off my shoulder and resolved to have fun with Marc.

We went to Benihana and had such a yummy dinner! We had a lot of fun just eating and talking. Then after, we went out to the garden/lounge area with a beautiful fountain from the ceiling. It was awesome...

This picture was taken just before Marc took me in his arms and said "Do you know why I wanted to bring you here?" My heart began to pound...and I looked him in the eyes and shook my head. "Because this is where my dad proposed to my mom. Cool, huh? Alright, let's go!"

AH! Drivin' me crazy!

Marc said that he had no plans for the rest of the night, and that he thought it would be fun to go down to the strip. I of course loved that idea, so off we went. Marc was parking at the Bellagio, like he always does, and as we passed Cesar's Palace, it dawned on me that my parents had been engaged in that same place! Wouldn't it be neat to go to both places where our parents were engaged in one night? I told Marc we should do that, and he said it was a good idea....as though he didn't already have it all planned!

As we walked through the Bellagio headed for Cesar's Palace, we walked out on the bridge and Marc started acting a little strange. His mom called and he said "we're on the bridge", then walked back into the bellagio. Of course my spidey senses were tingling at this point, and I noted that his hands were cold again. He asked me what I was thinking, and I said that he was acting strange. He stopped and said that him and his mom had planned a fun date for us and that it wasn't going to work, but that he had a plan B. We would go to Cesar's Palace, and then we would walk down the strip to another idea that he had. So on we went.

When we were walking down the stairs to the spot where my dad proposed, I noticed someone had taken a picture of us...Marc definitely acted like nothing happened, so I didn't think anything of it. When we got to the spot, I realized that Marc had a backpack in his hand. He pulled out a laptop and said that he had something he wanted to show me.

He started a video that said "MELODY ANN NELSON....So many people love you..." it then showed lots of people telling me why they love me (thanks to everyone who was involved), and then went through lots of memories and pictures of Marc and I with some of our favorite songs. It didn't really become real that he was going to propose to me until the end of the video when the song "Marry Me" by Train came on. When the video was over, I was almost afraid to turn around, because I wasn't sure what I was going to see. I could feel that there were people watching us, and I was right! This is what I saw when I turned around.

Ok, I didn't see the sign until after Marc actually proposed, but it was AWESOME. What I actually saw was lots of people watching on and cheering, and Marc handed me some roses, said some really wonderful things that I can't remember because I was so flustered, and pulled out the ring saying "I hope I surprised you a little bit..." while getting on one knee.

I promptly told him to put the ring on my finger before I could answer, because I knew as soon as I said yes, he would jump up and hug me...and I was right...

I went through so many different emotions after all of it! I was first excited...

Then, after the crowds dispersed, I had to let out some happy tears....